For the most part, Julian Gollop has a good track record of delivering games. Except for that Dreamland Chronicles thing. But Chaos Reborn came out pretty good. Well, it came out, anyway. I didn't actually enjoy it as it turns out, but there's no denying that it came out and was pretty well-polished.

Anyway, I backed this, so I'm hoping I have an X-Com-level good time with it.

Oh, please report back. I'm loving all my active games right now that I don't have time to play and play too much of anyway, but this has the potential to make me put them all away, if its ambition is even remotely realistic.

I've gotten the alpha and played through once. It is essentially one scenario with another option to play a mission on a random map. These are just some quick impressions without playing it again. Since I only played it once this morning before errands, I may update after a second play if I misremember anything. The alpha comes with a PDF which I have yet to read, so some of the unknowns may be moot.

At first glance, it resembles the new X-Com games with the blue/yellow movement system and half-cover/full-cover symbols for defense. There is a VATS-like targeting system where you can aim for the head/limbs/body with Likely/Probable hit point damage indicators for the hit point indicators. Your men have the same body indicator icons for their respective anatomy. My heavy gunner took damage to one of his arms and could no longer use his cannon which limited me to his pistol.

I'm not sure about the Overwatch/Return Fire system just yet. My soldiers returned fire when shot, but I didn't think I put them in Overwatch. I didn't immediately notice a symbol indicating Overwatch, but I may have missed it. I think there are line indicators indicating if they have LOS on you, as I saw a gray or red line pointing to the enemies with a soldier selected.

Finally, the terrain/buildings seem fully destructible. I don't know if it's a timed trigger or I did something, but the incredibly large Spider Queen appeared and just fooked the team. It was easily 3X the size of my soldiers and had hit points that appeared representative of various parts of her body. You are able to destroy her attack claws to limit her attack. I had a soldier on a catwalk above her...she just plowed through it and killed my soldier as he fell to the ground. As a matter of fact, that might be her attack since she seems to chew through anything in her path. I would like to see how destructive she is.

One important difference from new X-Com is that you can move and stop and move again. You can move forward a hex at a time if you want to make sure you don't get surprised by anything nasty. Every time you move the blue/yellow outlines change to show what movement you have left.

It also has an inventory system. So, you can pick up weapons from dead team members or enemies and equip/use them during the mission.

"This game is best played with a warm cup of Folger's coffee in your hands, so you can actually smell the oppression while you relive the greatest period of all time. The period when white people discovered the world, and decided they didn't like it." - EUIV Steam user review

When we launched our crowdfunding campaign for Phoenix Point in May 2017, we hoped that the game would be well received. But what has happened since has been phenomenal, with increasingly strong pre-orders and great press coverage. People’s expectations are higher, our team is growing, and Phoenix Point has become a bigger game. In order to realise this potential we need to push back the target release date to June 2019.

I believe we can create a game with high production values that will make a huge splash on launch. In order to achieve this we need to continue to expand the team and maintain our focus on quality. To be honest, this has been a slower process than I wanted, but I felt that we needed the best talent that we could find. I am glad to say that we now have 35 great developers in our Sofia studio, and as a consequence of our recent, excellent exposure we are attracting offers of help from game developers around the world.

For our backers who have pre-ordered the luxury digital edition we will commit to a new Backer Build at least once every two months up to the point of release.

I hope you will support our decision, which I believe is in the best long term interests of the game, and on behalf of the whole team we would like to thank all our backers for their support and faith in our vision for this ambitious and exciting project.

Offtopic slightly (though it is an xcom-ish game) I kickstarted Achtung! Cthulhu and have played the first few missions in the beta (it releases on Oct 4th) and I've been pleasantly surprised. I did notice at the end of the last mission the enemy turns seemed to be taking too long but hopefully they'll improve that by release

I backed this game quite a bit ago but just got an email stating that the game will now be released exclusively on Epic for a year before being distributed on Steam or GOG. Many backers across the usual internet watering holes are bolting for the exit and requesting a refund. The CEO mentioned an AMA on their subreddit which will go into further detail about the Epic deal. I look forward to watching the mess unfold.

Also will probably request a refund shortly since I’m not interested in adding another game service to my life and why should I wait another year till it get to Steam? I might as well wait for a Steam sale in 2 years.

tl;dr

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?

Epic is giving it a good try. I'm already waiting a year on Metro Exodus, I can add this one to that list as well.

The hilarious thing is that I do have Epic installed and was playing Fortnite PvE with my kids this weekend as well as the Satisfactory beta. I'm just not going to add anything else to Epic if I can help it.

Last edited by coopasonic on Tue Mar 12, 2019 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, I'm amused by the positive spin in their announcement. I guess buckets of cash can alter one's outlook...

The game was advertised to backers as being available on a variety of platforms such as Steam, GOG, Mac, Linux, Xbox. Linux fell by the wayside and I think you can still get it on the Xbox on launch day. You want to play games and change this so late in the game after taking backer money then you can reap the gamer whirlwind. I'm not as angry as others but it's enough to probably pull my dollars.

tl;dr

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?

That's a kick in crotch that makes me glad I didn't spend the bucks for EA. I already feel like Steam is too intrusive and the GOG client feels like poorly thought out bloatware. I don't want a third player on my PC.

And yeah, Pay to EA already puts me in a wait for for discount mood. Asking me to wait for wide release for a year is asking me to back burner it for deep discount, where I may or may not already be looking forward to the next thing.

The hilarious thing is that I do have Epic installed and was playing Fortnite PvE with my kids this weekend as well as the Satisfactory beta. I'm just not going to add anything else to Epic if I can help it.

This. I have Epic installed, but don't want another service. And it just rubs me the wrong way that their answer to this problem is to try and strong-arm me into using it through exclusives. Screw that.

Yeah, not happy about this at all. Exclusives suck. I'm a Fig backer from its initial launch and trying to decide how I want to react to this. I don't have their launcher installed and not thrilled having yet another one to deal with. To me though, about the only saving grace is this from their FAQ saying the "launcher" part isn't mandatory:

Will Phoenix Point include any DRM with the Epic Games Launcher?
The Epic Games Launcher will be required to download and update Phoenix Point. Once the game is downloaded and installed on your system, you will be able to launch the game directly from a desktop or program menu shortcut. The launcher will not be required for day-to-day play. An “always on” internet connection will not be required.

The Epic store has shoddy account security and Chinese ownership. That's a bad combination that makes me want to stay far away from it. As for Phoenix Point, it was going to be a day one purchase for me but not anymore.

"This game is best played with a warm cup of Folger's coffee in your hands, so you can actually smell the oppression while you relive the greatest period of all time. The period when white people discovered the world, and decided they didn't like it." - EUIV Steam user review

I don't want more corporate software running on my machine and I don't want more open pipes leaving my machine with data not under my control.

Secondarily, I already have to track too many logins and 2 factor authentication. I do more stuff than video games. I don't need more bloatware gumming up my system, and I'm already unhappy with the amount of crap I need to keep track of. Even with software doing it for me. The irony of running software to keep track software I don't want is just icing.

Literally no company frontends run on start up. Not steam, not discord, not Skype, nothing. I don't need another piece of crap imstalled on my system because I want to play a single game once I'm awhile.

I'm glad it's not a big deal for you. It's not a big deal for thousands. Great.

I don't want more corporate software running on my machine and I don't want more open pipes leaving my machine with data not under my control.

Secondarily, I already have to track too many logins and 2 factor authentication. I do more stuff than video games. I don't need more bloatware gumming up my system, and I'm already unhappy with the amount of crap I need to keep track of. Even with software doing it for me. The irony of running software to keep track software I don't want is just icing.

Literally no company frontends run on start up. Not steam, not discord, not Skype, nothing. I don't need another piece of crap imstalled on my system because I want to play a single game once I'm awhile.

I'm glad it's not a big deal for you. It's not a big deal for thousands. Great.

I bet you're a pleasant person to be around...

Nobody was calling you lame and stupid. Take a few steps back and lay off the self-induced drama.

I have Steam. I have Uplay. I have Origin. I have Epic Store. I have GOG. I have Battlenet. I have Windows Store.

Grandpa: Grandson, why is my computer running so slowly?
Grandson: Well, let's see, you're using internet explorer 6 with about half the screen covered in tool bars. You have a purple 3D animal waltzing across your screen. And it looks like you have eighty or so applications that start up when your computer starts up, including four bitcoin miners, nine online stores and forty three weather applications. How did you even cram all this stuff on here?
Grandpa: Well, I just click "yes" whenever something pops up.

I don't want more corporate software running on my machine and I don't want more open pipes leaving my machine with data not under my control.

Secondarily, I already have to track too many logins and 2 factor authentication. I do more stuff than video games. I don't need more bloatware gumming up my system, and I'm already unhappy with the amount of crap I need to keep track of. Even with software doing it for me. The irony of running software to keep track software I don't want is just icing.

Literally no company frontends run on start up. Not steam, not discord, not Skype, nothing. I don't need another piece of crap imstalled on my system because I want to play a single game once I'm awhile.

I'm glad it's not a big deal for you. It's not a big deal for thousands. Great.

I bet you're a pleasant person to be around...

Nobody was calling you lame and stupid. Take a few steps back and lay off the self-induced drama.

He's pleasantly crotchety.
And I agree with him, this will be the second game I was interested in that can percolate elsewhere before showing up on Steam.

I don't remember where I read this, Cort, maybe it was in the last patch notes, but they said the UAZ really handles the best when... the wheels are actually touching the ground.
--RedF1ve

I have enough games in my backlog and have become enough of a value shopper that a year's delay to get it where I want won't phase me in the least. But then, I doubt I'm the target demographic anymore.

Installed doesn't mean running. I have lots of stuff installed on my system that I only run when I need it, then exit when I'm done. It's nothing but a folder full of files and a few entries in the registry.

Epic is making a mistake. They had an ace in the hole. They have a well-known name, they have a fairly simple, straightforward client (listening, Uplay?), they capture the customers with some great giveaways, and they capture the developers with their smaller cut. They could ride that for all it's worth and probably start catching up with Steam.

But instead they fish for these exclusives. The overwhelming result is that PC gamers who despise console exclusivity 'politics' are beginning to take their anger out on Epic, killing all the goodwill they would have been building in a clumsy attempt to force customers to try out their service.

It's not that your position is wrong, Ken. Like I said, thousands and thousands of people agree with you. Blackhawk agrees with you. The problem is that it *is* a big deal for some (many?). So when those people talk about it being a big deal, hearing one of the majority come in and proclaim "I don't understand what the big deal is, it's easy" it's clear that not everyone prioritizes the same things, and it comes across as a refutation of the (valid, imo) reluctance to install yet another piece of useless, unnecessary software. Steam could do 99% of what it does with a web interface and we could all use our browsers of choice, but that's not the case, is it? It's not a big deal perhaps, but it's also not necessary. I don't like that.

I guess my point is that the default position of the majority of people is "It's not a big deal" which is fine, for them. We don't need to hear how it's not a big deal, we know, and the companies involved count on it. You just happened to step in at the wrong time imo. The "lame and dumb" reference comes from literally years of hearing the position you hold, in condescending and derogatory ways.

Your position is valid, Ken. So are the positions of others in this thread.